Tyler Gibb

ABSTRACT

Traditional primitive healing practices often involve medicines or treatments derived from plants or animals obtained from the local geographical region. The use of insects or closely related arthropods in primitive herbal medications is common. The practice of using arthropods in traditional healing practices was investigated among the culturally rich Ashanti healers in the village of Mampong in Ghana, West Africa. The Ashanti Tribe in Central Ghana is located in an area of lush vegetation and diverse arthropod fauna. The ‘folk-logic’, including cultural, biological, historical, religious, and environmental factors, that influences medical insect use was investigated. Significant factors influencing insect use included both the life cycle and the morphology of the insect. Medicinally important insects and arthropods found in West Africa were compared to those reportedly used in traditional medicine in other parts of the world.

INTRODUCTION

Man has used various natural products to help heal and cure disease since before history was recorded. Remedies and recipes have been gathered and passed on from one generation to the next. More experiments with different substances lead to a plethora of treatments. This wide range of medical treatments has generally included insects and their relatives. The ancient Mayan, Egyptian, and Brazilian societies have long since utilized the powerful biochemical properties of common insects (Zimmer, 1993; Piso, 1957; Andrade, 2000). The idea of medical treatments bases on insects has fallen out of favor among physicians and pharmaceutical researchers, but its presence still exists in some countries around the world. In Korea (Pemberton, 1999) and in China (Huang, 2002), there have been books published recently about the insects in medicine. Articles about medicinal insects in Brazil (Costa-Neto, 2002), Australia, Germany, Mexico, and in Native American Indian tribes have recently been published (Plotkin, 2000). The use of insects, and their relatives, as a medicinal agents is termed entomotherapy. Entomotherapy may seen archaic and out-dated, but it validity is surprising.

Indeed, insects have proven to be very important as sources of drugs for modern medicine since they have immunological, analgesic, antibacterial, diuretic, anesthetic and antirheumatic properties (Yamakawa, 1998). Chemical Screening applied to 14 insect species has confirmed the presence of proteins, terenoids (trierpenoids and steroids, carotenoids, iridoids, tropolenes), sugars, polyols and mucilages, saponins, polyphenolic glicosides, quinones, antraquinones glycosides, cyanogenic glycosides, and alkaloids (Andary et al., 1996). Chitosan, a compound derived from chitin, has been ised as an anticoagulant and to lower cholesterol level, as well as to repair tissues, and even in the fabrication of contact lenses (Goodman, 1989). Kunin and Lawton (1996) have recorded that promising anticancer drugs have been isolated from the wings of Asian sulphur butterflies (Catopsilia crocale, Pieridae) and from the legs of Taiwanese stag beetles (Allomyrina dichotomus, Scarabaeidae) –isoxanthopterin and dichostatin, respectively. Oldfield (1989) records that about 4% of the extracts evaluated in the 1970’s from 800 species of terresrial arthropods (insects included) showed some anticancer activity (Costa Neto, 2002).

With the advent of modern research institutions and privately funded grants, pharmaceutical companies began to place less emphasis on chemical compounds from insects. The ………….

African Medical Ideologies

Illness and healing are not universal concepts. They change and take on new meanings depending different cultures. Modern medical and scientific theories about the body and how and what medicines are capable of has not penetrated some areas of the world. This is the case in rural Africa. The people have a very different understanding of why people get sick, and how they can be treated. African traditional healers have been treating and healing patients for hundreds if not thousands of years. They claim to be able to treat much more that western trained physicians would ever dare. Infertility, cancer, malaria, even cursing and business failures are not beyond their expertise. This paradigm is often difficult to understand for westerners. What we view as paranormal or even superstitious is well within the repertoire of traditional healers. This gap in paradigms has lead to misunderstanding and misinformation. The term ‘witch doctor’ is a product of this misunderstanding. The ability of traditional healers to treat witchcraft, cursing, and supernatural problems may be hard to believe, but it provides interesting ideas about the causes and potential treatments of illness.

A second key component of traditional medicine in Africa is the element of divination. This also necessitates a new way of thinking about knowledge and diagnosis of physical problems. The traditional priests in the Asante tribe deal with ‘gods’ and ‘spirits’ to help diagnose patients regardless of their ailments. For example, in the village of Penteng there is a young priest we worked with and observed quite expensively. His practice of divination, or consultation, is representative of most others. The priest, Gyasi Obeng, has scheduled days for consultation. His reputation for effectiveness and legitimacy reaches far beyond the small village. People may travel up to two days to see him. As the patients gather in front of his small shrine to the river gods, Gyasi begins to dance and sing with the drummers of the village. As he dances, the river gods came and possess his body. When the spirits take control of Gyasi he retires into a small consulatation room and begins to meet with the patients. They enter the room, take off their shoes and may begin to ask the possessing spirit questions. In African cosmology there is an intermediate level of lesser gods/ spirits, abosom, that communicate the will of ‘the great god’, onyame, to the race of men. The possessing spirit of Gyasi is one of these abosom. Because of their elevated status, they can see things that are beyond our understanding. This is the reason that people will visit Penteng to ask questions of Gyasi and the river gods. As the people ask Gyasi questions in the consultation room, they are in actuality asking the spirit who is possessing Gyasi at the time the questions. Gyasi will not remember the experience. According to him, it experience was like having a dream where he was only able to recall vague details. The source of the patients misfortune was identified and treatments were prescribed. These treatments could be anything from giving money to poor children, sacrificing a chicken or goat, or taking herbal medications. The herbs are usually grown in Gyasi’s personal garden or gathered in the local vegetation. In these concoctions, insects and other parts of small animals are sometimes added depending on the malady and the needed effect from the drug. The reasons for adding the insects and other arthropods was the focus of this research.

Methodology

The data for this project was obtained from personal interviews with traditional healers in the Ashanti Mampong area of central Ghana. Traditional healers includes traditional herbalists, village elders, and traditional priests, or ‘witch doctors’. The insect were collected when possible and preserved for later identification. A particular difficulty in obtaining information was the fact that the traditional healers were in spirit possession while prescribing and in most cases while mixing the herbal/insect medications. When interviewed after the consultation, most of the traditional healers did not remember what or why they prescribed the medications. During the consultations the local elders, and shire workers were interviewed when the traditional priests were in possession. The collection of the insects was limited to those observed or referred to in the medications of the healers. In most cases, the insects were able to be collected in and around the local village.

This field research project attempted to identify and catalog the usage of insects in healing methods among traditional healers in the area surrounding Ashanti-Mampong, Ghana, West Africa. I initially became interested in this question after reading an article by Dr. William Bradford, M.D. presented at the International Zoological Society Conference in Chicago. The paper was entitled “Entomologica Medica Media,” and chronicled the use of insects as medical material. The report listed over twenty families of insects commonly used in medical treatment for various kinds of ailments. Interestingly, there were certain insects that were used for multiple different illnesses by different cultures in different parts of the world.

RESULTS

Most of the insect medications that were observed in Asante Mampong could be separated in to three categories based on their usage, and the reasons behind their use. Insects were prescribed based on three ideas of medicinal value; morphological, behavioral, and cultural. A fourth section is reserved for uses that had not logical, or known reason; they just did it becasue taht is the way their gradparents did it. The folklogic was not passed down or was lost over the years. The insects are still seen as critical parts of the recipe, but why is not known
-Morphological
Folk-logic is the understanding of ideas and concepts because of observed similarities in everyday life. For example, insect that have large body parts are generally good at curing pains that correlate to that part.

Leaf-footed bug (Coreidae)
The disproportionally large hind legs are the distinguishing characteristic of the insects. The insects were dried and ground up with a variety of other herbs and seeped and drank as a treatment for leg problems. Generally, this treatment was used for people with “small weak legs” or with fractured legs.

Grasshoppers (Gyrrilidae)
daddy-long-leg spiders, and centipedes were all used in the same way to treat leg problems. While all the insects were dried and consumed with herbs, the herbal concoctions varied with each recipe.

Big headed flies
were used for a variety of different ailments. Depending on the type of fly and its distinguishing characteristic, the flies could be used for anything from headaches to children who have not yet begun to walk. The “big-headed fly” is used for headaches. .

Cultural Symbols
Aboaba

Asisilape

Witches and Insects

Butterfly Gods

Ants

TABLES AND GRAPHS

DISCUSSION

Drugs such as penicillin and quinine are derived from naturally occurring chemicals. Today, rigorous testing and research is required before a new drug can be marketed and sold. These regulations have focused on certain types of naturally based chemical and avoided some potentially valuable yet less-marketable sources. One example is insect derived chemicals. The idea of a “drug from a bug” is infinitely more difficult to sell to the public than a drug from a botanical source. Thus potentially important biochemical compounds have been ignored.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

REFERENCES (LITERATURE CITED)

• Forest Entomology in West Tropical Africa: Forest insects of Ghana, Dr. Michael Wagner.
• Medicine Quest: In Search of Natures Healing Secrets. by Authors: Mark J. Plotkin
• Clausen, L.S. 1962. Insect Fact and Folklore. Collier Books, NY, NY.
• Kritsky, G.R. 1992. Take two cicadas and call me in the morning. In: Insect Potpourri, (J. Adams, ed.)
• Sandhill Crane Press, Inc., Gainesville, Florida. pp. 40-43

Internet Resources

• http://www.cyberbee.net/~huang/pub/insect.html.
• http://teacher.scholastic.com/researchtools/articlearchives/humanbody/grossmedicine.htm

Journal Articles

• Pemberton, R. 1999. Insects and other arthropods used as drugs in Korean traditional medicine. Journal of Ethnopharmacology v. 65, no. 3, pp. 207-216.
• The Use of Insects in Folk Medicine in the State of Bahia, Northeastern Brazil, with Notes on Insects Reported Elsewhere in Brazilian Folk Medicine. By Eraldo Medeiros Costa-Neto
• Oudhia, P. (1998)Medicinal insects and spiders. Insect Environment.4(2) : 57-58
• Oudhia, P. (1999). Traditional medicinal knowledge about Red velvet mite Trombidium sp. (Acari : Trombidiidae) in Chhattisgarh. Insect Environment 5(3) : 113.
• Oudhia, P. (2001) Traditional medicinal knowledge about Bed Bug Cimex lectularius L.(Hemiptera: Cimicidae) in Chhattisgarh (India).Insect Environment.7(1):23.
• Oudhia,P.(2000).Traditional medicinal knowledge about green leaf hopper, Nephotettix spp. in Chhattisgarh (India). International Rice Research Notes.25(3):40.
• Oudhia,P.(2002).Traditional medicinal knowledge about Fireflies, Photuris sp.(Coleoptera:Lampyridae)in Chhattisgarh(India). Insect Environment,Vol.8(1):25
• Oudhia,P.(2002).Traditional medicinal knowledge about Red Ant Oecophylla smaragdina (Fab.) [Hymenoptera:Formicidae]in Chattisgarh,India.Insect Environment.8(3):114-115.
• Berenbaum, M. 1993. Over-the-counter insects. American Entomologist 39(4): 200-201.
• Chen, Y. and R.D. Akre. 1994. Ants used as food and medicine in China. The Food Insects Newsletter VII(2): 1,8-10.
• Medeiros, E. 2002. The use of insects in folk medicine. Human Ecology Journal, v 30 p. 245.

QUOTES TO USE

Plotkin, Mark J., 2000. Medicine Quest. Penguin Putnam Inc. New York.
P. 73 “insects and related arthropods (such as spiders and ticks, which are scientifically classified as arachnids rather than true insects) offer tremendous promise for better treatments for myriad ailments because of their astonishing species diversity and dazzling biochemical complexity. Of all the species on earth that have been classified by scientists (about 1.5 million), more than half are insects, yet we estimate there may be more than 29 million species of arthropods that have yet to be named, much less studied.”

p. 74 Dr. May Berenbaum “has estimated that there are ten quintillion (10^19 ) insects on the planet at any time.”

p. 76 “as early as the first century A.D., Dioscorides was prescribing an effective treatment for some bladder problems based on roasted insects whose hemolymph contained sodium salts.”
“Around the same time, Pliny was recommending headless beetles as a cure for infected wounds.”
“Chinese texts have long included prescriptions for the use of bed bugs to treat bacteria infections like sties and infected wounds. In one account, published in 1590, a healer wrote: ‘In case of chronic ulceration with a gaping wound, apply locally some bed bugs, the heads of which should be removed.’ ”

p. 77 “ A Brazilian shaman that I had known for years recently shared a recipe for a concoction that he employs as a treatment ‘for children that cry in the night’ – a tea prepared by boiling local roached. It may be that antimicrobial compounds in the hemolymph cure a bacterial infection; it may be that the roaches’ fat soothes the child’s aching throat; or it may be that when Mom says, ‘stop crying or I’m going to give you the roach juice!’ the child becomes very quiet.”

P. 90 “Although honey’s use as a wound dressing never truly disappeared, it was not until the mid-1940’s that its effectiveness was confirmed in the lab. However, spurred on by the development of penicillin and other fungi-derived drugs for the war effort, the ‘antibiotic revolution’ was in full swing. The pharmaceutical companies focused their efforts on marketing these drugs (which consequently consumers could not produce in backyard beehives). Consequently, honey never become part of the antibacterial armentarium employed by today’s physicians.”

Clausen, Lucy W., 1967. Insect Fact and Folklore. McMillian Company New York.

P. 1 “Of all the classes of animals, insects are the only creatures that have adapted themselves to every climatic and topographical condition. They can be seen almost everywhere, crawling, creeping, and flying, up to altitudes exceeding 15,000 feet, from the north polar regions to some of the bleak islands off Cape Horn; on snow-clad mountains and glaciers, in hot springs, in fresh and brackish waters, and even in caves where the light of day never penetrates.”

P. 17 “In the primitive medicine of the seventeenth century Europe, an oil made from clothes moths was said to ‘cure warts, deafness, and leprosy, and when mixed with tar, to be good in all sots of rebellious ulcers. Blothes, scabs and whittles.’ Another European custom was the medicinal use of canker-worms, the caterpillars which are such great pests of shade trees. These collected in great numbers, burned, and the ashes, when put into the nostrils, were said to stop bleeding. A powder made of these ashes was also prescribed for epilepsy.”

P. 31 “There are aproximately 250,000 described species of beetles and they for the largest single order in the entire animal kingdom.”

P. 35 “The jaws (mandibles) of the stag beetle, for example, were worn by an afflicted person under the name of ‘horns of scarabaei’ in the case of convulsions, and as oil prepared by soaking the beetle itseld was said to sure earache. Presumably this was the same beetle that was recommended by Thomas Moffett, a seventeenth century writer of natural history, to be worn as an amulet for ‘an ague of pains, and contradiction of the tendons if applied to the affected parts, and if tied to the neck of children it enables them to retain their urine.’ ”

P. 36 “The word ‘cantharidin’ has been loosely used; it may apply either to the dry powdered beetles themselves, or to the preserved fluid extract from their bodies. Commercial cantharidin is obtained from blister beetles in Spain, south Russia, Hungary, Sicily, Poland, Romania, and southern Europe, for thus far its artificial manufacture has been unsuccessful.”

p. 38 “It (cantharidin) was used for centuries, having been mentioned as an aphrodisiac by Hippocrates.”

P. 44 “At one time, dung beetles were also used medicinally. According to Pliny (Caius Plinius Secundus, an industrious Roman compiler of natural history who lived at about 50 B.C.) Many Romans carried beetles on their persons by advise of their ‘magicians’ –not ‘physicians’! The insects were tied in a linen cloth and then attached to the body with a red string as a relief for ‘quartan ague,’ which was probably one of the malarial fevers.”

P. 109 “In early medicinal literature there are numerous references to the use of black ants for closing incisions and small perforations, as well as for stitching extensive wounds. Some references date back to Hindu writings as early as 1000 B.C.”
“In Guiana…there are soldier ants whose function is protection of the nest from enemy invasion. These soldier ants have very prominent, scissor-shaped, saw-tooth jaws which grip anything what come within reach. Even after the ant has been beheaded it is not easy to loosen its bulldog grip. Natives living along the Amazon have noted this tenacity and make use of these ants whenever deep wounds are incurred.”

p. 53 “Cockroaches in one form or another have been considered by some people to be an important ingredient for special medicines. The Indians of Jamaica drink a mixture containing the ashes of cockroaches as a cure for certain diseases, and also administer it to their children to kill worms. Mashed with sugars, cockroaches are applied to ulcers and cancers as a healing aid.”

P. 59 “Children believe this dark fluid (grasshopper spit) possessed wart-curing qualities. In China, and in Japan alson, this fluid was preserved for medicinal uses and sold in apothecary shops.”

P. 98 “During the middle ages honey played an important role in the art of healing. It was applied to ulcerated wounds as well as to fresh bloody wounds. It was also recommended for inflamation of the mouth cavity and throat, as well as elceration of the digestive tract.

p. 121 “In the Orient, certain species of mutillid wasps were used by physicians for treating snake bites, and by veterinarians for treating colic in horses.”

Pemberton RW. Journal of Ethnopharocology Vol 65 n.3
p. 209 Table
p. “most doctors (17 of 20) indicated that arthropod drugs are usually mixed with otherdrug materials to produce desired effects.”
p. 212 “centipedes with their numerous legs, feet and articulated body segments are used for led, foot and joint problems.”
p. 213 “The absence of arthropod-based drugs in the West is probably related to negative cultural attitudes toward arthropods.”
p. “The enormous richness and diversity of arthropods and the use of many species as drugs against commons and important diseases in South Korea and elsewhere, suggest that arthropods are a large, unexplored and unexploited source of potentially useful compounds for medicine.”
p. 14 appendix A.

Medeiros, E. 2002. The use of insects in folk medicine. Human Ecology Journal, v30
P 246 “They (insects) have been used live, cooked, ground, in infusions, in plasters, and as ointments, both in the curative and preventative medicines, as well as in magical- religious rituals.”
“ Insects have proven to be very important sources of drugs for modern medicine since the have immunological, analgesic, antibacterial, diuretic, anesthetic, and antiheumatic properties.”